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"Medical Police State Improv in wch we don't try to Sooth the Savage Beast w/ Schmaltz": It's my feeling that I'm currently living in a world that's been artificially divided into people who believe that the quarantine is 'for our own good' & those who believe it an oppression. Furthermore, many or most people in these 2 camps believe that everyone of one of these opinions all thinks in exactly the same way. Almost all nuance seems to be gone. There's a vehemence & intolerance, in my opinion, to both sides of this divide. Because I think that the medical lockdown is a calculated opportunistic imposition of crowd control as well as a test of the same, those in favor of it lump me in with the stereotype of those against when, in reality, I'm not a member of either side, I'm a free thinker. The result of this is that even old friends of mine who're 'liberal' are acting like fascists in an attempt to get me to toe their party line. I will not comply. And neither will my old friend Dick Turner. As such, we decided to take advantage of the technical opportunities for international video conferencing by playing a brief improvisation with each other & to then have a spontaneous conversation about our own observations & frustrations under the current socially isolating conditions. There've been quite a few of these musical projects so far in which people are playing together while still being isolated in their homes. One thing I've noted is that some of the music played tends toward more consonant 'soothing of the beast', apparently chosen to help people relax. Dick & I didn't preplan what we would play & somewhat to my surprise the result was almost meditatively sparse. Neither of us seemed particularly moved to frenzy. This might speak of our introspective natures. The frenzy, if it can accurately be called that, came more when I began to talk about the abuse that's being heaped on me by one particularly belligerent friend of mine who absolutely can't stand my resistance to what I'm calling the MONOLITHIC NARRATIVE. Because he's been trying to bully me & because he consistently calculatingly misrepresents my position to be a pro-Rump one even though he knows that I'm an anarchist contemptuous of the Idiot King this former friend has earned a place of complete disgust in my life. I will never waste my energy on communication with such a person again. He can't peer pressure me & he wouldn't be able to even if he were my peer, which he isn't. It's a pleasure & an honor to've been able to interact with my fellow HERETIC, Dick Turner, on April 22, 2020 (Vision), he in Paris, me in Pittsburgh. - tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE April 23, 2020 (Vision) notes